If you know me, you know that I have been passionate about Women’s History since forever. At first it was probably because I always liked history, it is after all, just a story. But as I was enjoying history I was always wondering “where are the women?”. Great about George Washington, but tell me more about Martha. I had to do a lot of digging and reading on my own to find out where the women were because they didn’t teach that in the classes I was taking. And I learned that they were there all along, doing all the same things these celebrated men were doing but in voluminous skirts and with a baby attached to them at some point on their body. Go women! When I began teaching, I became absolutely passionate about making sure we were not just reading the works of dead, white men. We were reading Kate Chopin’s “Story of an Hour” and talking about why she was so happy her husband was dead. But even this wasn’t enough. I wanted an entire class where we just learned about women and after some patience, some persistence, and um, some departmental debate, Women, Words and Wisdom was born. This class is my passion, my chance to teach about the women we never learned about, an elective for curious students, and this is a class that I almost lost because I was too tired to fight.
I was told in March that budget cuts, teachers losing jobs, yadda yadda, my elective, my WWW, was being cut for next year. March is the tail-end of soccer season. I was exhausted physically, mentally, spiritually; just a hollowed-out shell of a human. I was sad, but at the time, it just made me feel more tired. I could see what they were saying and I nodded and went on with my very long day ahead of me. The students in my class were livid. They wanted better answers, they wanted to know if we could form a club, fight a fight. (This is why working with teenagers is sometimes so rewarding: all that passion and fury!) But, and I am embarrassed to admit this, it wasn’t until they presented their final exams that I remembered that I wanted to fight for this class too. Their finals consisted of them writing a children’s book about their life, or some aspect of their life. These stories were hilarious, they rhymed, they had original art work, and they were so, so personal. They talked about not having their dads around, being raised mostly by women, about overcoming anxiety, about trying and failing and trying once again. I sat at my desk laughing and crying and knowing we had created this safe space that they could be so vulnerable in and it shook me out of my exhaustion and reminded me I needed to fight.
And I know we are all exhausted and we run this world at the expense of ourselves. We have to look at this new ruling of overturning Roe v Wade and we need to be shaken out of our collective stupor, and as always, we need to fight. We are at this place because we are tired and we don’t go to vote or we forget that things are important outside our own small worlds. Really, I don’t care if you are prolife or prochoice; I just want us all to be prowomen, and this ruling shows we are not. This ruling is an attack on women, on their bodies, on their place in society. It is not about babies. If any of this was about babies, there would be no child left in the foster care system or up for adoption. This is about reminding women where they stand and forcing them, once again, to be smaller then men. To be less than. And this is going to hit women of color and women who are low-income harder than any other group. Like all of history, really.
No abortion in the case of rape or incest? What kind of Draconian punishment is that for having a vagina? For being attacked and violated against your will? For being held down and abused? This is not okay! This makes me want to scream “FUCK” into the void and I want you to scream it with me. This is rape culture, this is saying boys will be boys and she shouldn’t have worn that shirt. Fuck that. Boys shouldn’t be rapists and she can wear whatever the hell she wants.
If you don’t think this ruling applies to your life at all, you are very wrong. I am not going to have a child or get pregnant any time soon (two dusty eggs left in there and a shell of a uterus), but it affects me because it affects the young women I teach. The women I teach with. Women I know and don’t know. It affects women. It sets the precedent for changing any rule about women. Did you know that it was only as recent as the 1970’s that women could own their own home, get a credit card, or a loan? Maybe that is next. I keep picturing the episode of “The Handmaid’s Tale” where Moira’s money is all gone because she doesn’t have a spouse to transfer her balance to. That will be me. That will be you.
If you have never studied Women’s History, get a book and read it. You don’t have to start at cave dwellers; find an era that interests you and read about it. See where the women were and what they did and how they were treated. Watch Mrs. America on Hulu if you want to see the original fight for Roe v Wade and why the Equal Rights Amendment is still not passed. Be curious, be open-minded, be purposefully angry. Be reminded, as I was, that we are never done fighting. Be educated, be supportive of other women, be committed to being active in a way that helps rather than hurts. It is okay to be still be exhausted! Be exhausted while you do these things. I know it is hard to breathe and act with feet on our necks. RBG has said so nicely that “all I ask of our brethren is they take their feet off our necks.” This latest ruling is not only standing on our necks, but stomping.
Be a feminist. See if the men in your life are feminists. All it feminism means is that men and women are equal. Teach other people this definition of feminism. One can still be better than the other at different things, but equal in their standing in society, equal in how they are paid, equal in their votes, equal in how they get to live their lives. Be angry. Be shaken out of your exhaustion and be ready to find a place to show your voice. At the very least, take comfort that we don’t have to do all this in a corset or voluminous skirts. Yet.
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